An Experiment Gone Horribly...Right

So, I spent some time yesterday morning checking out some tutorial videos and I came across these gems through nailsmag.com. I check out a variety of their associated blogs quite often, but today I got distracted by the video tutorials. More specifically this one about how to make nail decals using UV Gels. She uses Shellac in the video but across the bottom it said you could try this with any UV Gel system.  Well that got me excited to try it out!!

I managed to make it through my daytime activities until the evening time, which is my "nail work" time. I gave it a shot, and YES! The claim that it works with any UV Gel system is absolutely true! I created my first nail decal. w00t w00t It was my first attempt and I deliberately created a design that was big just so I could see if it worked before I spent a huge amount of time doing tiny detailed work. No, I didn't take a picture.  I did a few that were more "to scale" and they came out okay. There's definitely a size limit on how big you can get with these things so I struggled for a few moments trying to come up with something small enough. I went back to recent art and did a heart...layering a smaller heart in a different color.

It came out fine, great even, but I couldn't imagine what the heck am I going to do with it? It's not like I can't whip out half a dozen hearts freehand in a timely way - thus defeating the purpose of using my own custom decals. My recently purchased Micro-bead set came to mind. You'll see from the pictures below, I created the design on a stiff piece of clear plastic.  In fact, the first one I did on a piece of backing from a set of decals I'd already used but still had the piece of clear plastic. Recycle!

In order to maintain the right scale, I needed to use a pre-made image to work from. I decided to use my stamping plates for that. I just stamped an image on the back of an unused envelope and taped my clear plastic bit onto that. I then grabbed a toothpick, moistened the point and started picking up tiny beads. At this point I'm using a magnifying glass just so I can *see* each individual bead and place it over the design. I got into my groove and finished the design. I brushed a gel top coat onto the beads with a super thin striping brush tip. I wanted to strengthen the bond to the base of the decal but not drown the beads in gel.

These pictures are not anywhere near professional looking - but I am so excited how well this came out that I went ahead and took some even though I haven't figured out the presentation part of it yet.  I just *had* to share!

With Backing taped to a bottle of OPI

With a Stamping Plate and a painted piece of paper

I think this is a for sure winner right here.  What do you think? Would you buy something like this to apply yourself?